HUNTSVILLE, Ala., Dec. 5, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- COSCO Shipyard Group Co., Ltd. (COSCO), a preferred partner for the world's leading shipping companies and offshore oil service providers, has extended its five-year master agreement with Intergraph®. The agreement strengthens the strategic partnership between COSCO and Intergraph and extends Intergraph's position within China's offshore market.

COSCO has previously delivered numerous offshore projects using SmartMarine® Enterprise. With the greater software productivity, advanced quality designs and a strong, local Intergraph technical support team, COSCO renewed the long-term master agreement to expand applications and increase its competitive edge using the SmartMarine Enterprise solution.

"We have been using Intergraph technology for many years, and we are pleased to extend our long-term strategic relationship with Intergraph," said COSCO officials. "We have achieved great success through the implementation of SmartMarine Enterprise for our engineering projects, and we are confident that SmartMarine Enterprise will continue to deliver tremendous value to our company."

"Since first implementing SmartMarine 3D in 2006, COSCO Shipyard Group has seen significant gains in productivity and quality through the use of our next-generation, rule-driven offshore and shipbuilding design solution," said Gerhard Sallinger, Intergraph Process, Power & Marine president. "Intergraph is a long-standing, trusted partner in China, and we are pleased to see the tremendous success COSCO is having with our solutions."

Welch Sun, general manager of Intergraph Process, Power & Marine in Greater China, said, "Intergraph's talented staff combined with our excellent solutions create more value for our customers. At any time and on any project, Intergraph's technical staff will throw themselves into the implementation of projects to support our customers. We are dedicated to fulfilling Intergraph's 'Rule No. 1': We will never let a customer down."

Intergraph's SmartMarine Enterprise is the world's most advanced, integrated offshore and shipbuilding solution, driving improvements in design efficiency, production schedule, handover, and overall life-cycle cost control for enhanced global competitiveness. Intergraph is a world leader in marine structure design and data management, with SmartMarine Enterprise endorsed and used by the world's leading offshore and marine companies, including the most productive shipyard, the top offshore owner operator, the top fabrication yard, and the top classification society in the world.

SmartMarine 3D is the world's most advanced offshore and shipbuilding design solution, featuring breakthrough engineering technology that is knowledge-based and rule-driven to improve delivery schedules, with increased detail and manufacturing design productivity of up to 30 percent. SmartMarine 3D is endorsed and used by leading offshore and marine companies globally. To learn more about SmartMarine 3D's capabilities for the offshore market, visit www.intergraph.com/go/offshore.

The ARC Advisory Group, a leading industry analyst firm, ranked Intergraph as the No. 1 overall worldwide provider of engineering design solutions for industry according to its "Engineering Design Tools for Industry and Infrastructure Worldwide Outlook Market Analysis and Forecast Through 2016."

About COSCO

Founded in June 2001, COSCO Shipyard Group Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO), is a large enterprise group, specializing in large vessel building, marine engineering construction and conversion, and ship repair and building services. With locations including Dalian, Nantong, Zhoushan, Guangdong Province, Shanghai and Lian Yungang and other places, COSCO Shipyard Group offers large ship enterprises and ancillary services enterprises that lead the domestic market and enjoy a high international profile as well.

Built on professional services and modern management, COSCO Shipyard has become the preferred partner for the world's top shipping companies and offshore oil providers. For more information, visit www.cosco-shipyard.com.

About Intergraph

Intergraph is the leading global provider of engineering and geospatial software that enables customers to visualize complex data. Businesses and governments in more than 60 countries rely on Intergraph's industry-specific software to organize vast amounts of data to make processes and infrastructure better, safer and smarter. The company's software and services empower customers to build and operate more efficient plants and ships, create intelligent maps, and protect critical infrastructure and millions of people around the world.

Intergraph operates through two divisions: Process, Power & Marine (PP&M) and Security, Government & Infrastructure (SG&I). Intergraph PP&M provides enterprise engineering software for the design, construction, operation and data management of plants, ships and offshore facilities. Intergraph SG&I provides geospatially powered solutions to the public safety and security, defense and intelligence, government, transportation, photogrammetry, and utilities and communications industries. Intergraph Government Solutions (IGS) is an independent subsidiary for SG&I's U.S. federal business.